|
Iain Boal & Michael
Watts. The
Liberal International. A Review of David Harvey A Brief History of
Neoliberalism
reviews are the result of an action, the action of reviewing. To
review is to view again, examine or study again, look back on, take a
retrospective view, give critical evaluation, pause and reflect, think.
Here we review books, struggles, texts, images, and more.
letters In this section we collect written
messages addressed to people or organisations in order to raise issues,
voice concerns and in the attempt to establish some clarity in our
thoughts.
Massimo De Angelis. There
is no Alternative versus There are Many Alternatives.
A review of Jai Sen, Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar and Peter Waterman (eds.)
2004. World
Social Forum. Challenging Empires
New Delhi: The Viveka Foundation. 402 pp. (London distribution: Global
Book Marketing).
International debate on John Holloway's book, Change the World without Taking Power.
Peter Waterman. The Excessively Post-Communist Manifesto of George
Monbiot
Peter
Waterman. The
International Labour Movement Between Geneva, Brussels, Seattle/Porto
Alegre and...Utopia?
Werner Bonefeld. A Note on Cyril Smith. One of the editor of What is to
be done? Leninism, Anti-Leninist Marxism and the question of revolution
today replies to one reviewer.
Cyril Smith on `Anti-Leninism is not enough'. A
review of What is to be done? Leninism, Anti-Leninist
Marxism and the question of revolution today. Edited by Werner
Bonefeld and Sergio Tischler. Ashgate, 2002.
Time
to revolt. Reflections
on Empire
by
John Holloway
Cyril
Smith reviews Change
the World without Taking Power,
by John Holloway
Richard Barbrook
on The Napsterisation of Everything: a review of John Alderman,
Sonic
Boom: Napster, P2P and the battle for the future of music,
Fourth Estate, London 2001
Gender and Globalization:
Where, Now, are the Women, the Feminists…and the Movement?
Peter Waterman
reviews
'Globalisation and
Gender', Signs, Vol. 26, No. 4, Summer 2001. Special Issue.
How to Successfully Take
Exams… and Partially Remake the World? Peter Waterman
reviews Bertell Ollman's latest
book.
In the first of two
parts article, Boris
Kagarlitsky tells the story of Prague 2000:
the People's Battle. In the second
part, Lessons of Prague, he
discusses the issues of violence, media, and the need for the movements to
pull energies together for a positive agenda.
Peter Waterman offers sixteen propositions on International Labour
Networking.
top
Interview with Evo Morales (president
of the coca farmers' federation in Chapare, Bolivia)
by
Yvonne Zimmermann
Back in the days of the
'War Against Communism' in Vietnam, a US cartoon character called Pogo,
said, 'I have seen the enemy and he is us'. Why does Pogo have no monument in Washington
DC? Peter Waterman tells us in Aliens "Я" Us™ (not to mention U.S.)
10 July 2001.. Robin Goodfellow comments on the last two letters with some thoughts
on form and content
24 June 2001. Goblin
comments on
El Viejo's letter, and reflects on the "future in the present", the
question of "violence", and current strategies within the
counter-globalization movement.
21 June 2001. El Viejo writes
to the movement he is part of on Genoa, violence, a new world and respect for
each-other.
25 May 2001. Goblin
writes to Chris Harman, a British socialist, about the anti-capitalist movement.
top
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|
The Commoner
N.11 - Spring/Summer 2006
|
 |
Re(in)fusing
the Commons |
|
| Angela
Mitropoulos,
Autonomy,
Recognition, Movement [.pdf] |
| Nick
Dyer-Witheford, Species-Being
and the New Commonism [.pdf] |
|
Precarias a la Deriva,
A Very Careful
Strike - Four hypotheses
[.pdf] |
|
P.M., The
golden globes of the planetary commons [.pdf] |
| George
Ciccariello-Maher, Working-Class
One-Sidedness from Sorel to Tronti [.pdf] |
|
Silvia Federici, The
Restructuring of Social Reproduction in the United States in the
1970s [.pdf] |
|
Ida Dominijanni, Heiresses
at Twilight. The End of Politics and the Politics of Difference [.pdf] |
|
The
Commoner N.11 >>> COMPLETE.pdf
<<<
|
|
The Commoner
N.10 - Spring/Summer 2005
|
 |
The
Carnival of Values
and the Exchange Value of Carnival |
|
|
Introduction |
| David
Graeber, Value
as the Importance of Action [.pdf] |
| Massimo
De Angelis, Value(s),
Measure(s) and Disciplinary Markets...
[.pdf] |
|
George Caffentzis, Immeasurable
Value?: An Essay on Marx's Legacy [.pdf] |
|
Harry Cleaver, Work,
Value and Domination [.pdf] |
| David
Harvie, All
Labour is Productive and Unproductive
[.pdf] |
|
Mariarosa Dalla Costa,
Development
and Reproduction
[.pdf] |
|
Mariarosa Dalla Costa
and Dario De Bortoli, For
Another Agriculture and Another Food Policy in Italy [.pdf] |
|
Silvia Federici, Women's
Land Struggles and the Valorization of Labour
[.pdf] |
|
The
Commoner
N.10 >>> COMPLETE.pdf
<<< |
|
|
|
The Commoner
N.9 - Spring/Summer 2004
|
 |
Life
despite capitalism:
The
"virtual" and the "actual" |
|
|
Introduction |
| -
James
W. Lindenschmidt, From
Virtual Commons To Virtual Enclosures: Revolution and
Counter-Revolution In The Information Age
[doc]
[pdf]
[sxw] |
| -
Matthias Studer, Gift
and Free Software
[doc]
[pdf]
[sxw] |
|
- Ariel Salleh. Sustainability
and Meta-Industrial Labour: Building a Synergistic Politics [doc]
[.pdf] |
|
-
Mercedes Moya, Some
Common Goods: an Afro-colombian view [doc]
[pdf] |
| - Franco Barchiesi, Citizenship
as Movement. Migrations, Social Control and the Subversion of State
Sovereignty [doc]
[pdf] |
|
- Amory Starr. Hunting
democracy down in Miami for free trade [htm] |
|
|
|
The Commoner N.8 -
Autumn/Winter 2004
|
 |
Around
Commons and Autonomy, War and Reproduction |
|
|
Introduction |
| -
Paul
Routledge, Convergence
of Commons: Process Geographies of People’s Global Action [complete
.pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| -
David Harvie, Commons
and Communities in the University: Some Notes and Some Examples
[complete
.pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| -
Werner Bonefeld, Uncertainty
and Social Autonomy [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc]
|
|
- Colectivo Situaciones, Causes
and Happenstance (dilemmas of Argentina’s new social
protagonism) [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| - George Caffentzis, Freezing
the Movement: Posthumous Notes on Nuclear War [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc]
|
|
- Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Capitalism
and Reproduction [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
|
top
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The Commoner
N.7 - Spring/Summer 2003
|
 |
The
"governance" of Imposed Scarcity:
Money,
Enclosures and the Space of Co-operation
|
|
|
Introduction |
| -
George
Caffentzis.
The
Power of Money: Debt and Enclosure. [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| - Matthew
Hampton.
The
Return of Scarcity and the International Organisation of Money After
the Collapse of Bretton Woods. [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| -
Massimo
De Angelis. Neoliberal
Global Governance and Accumulation.
[complete .pdf] - [complete .doc]
|
|
-
Les
Levidow. Governance
of Genetically Modified Food.
[complete .pdf] - [complete .doc]
|
|
-
Andrew
Robinson and Simon Tormey. New
Labour’s neoliberal Gleichschaltung: the case of higher education.
[complete .pdf] - [complete .doc]
|
|
top
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|
The Commoner
N.6 - Winter 2003 |
 |
What
alternatives? Commons and Communities, Dignity and Freedom! |
|
|
Introduction |
| - Massimo De Angelis.
Reflections
on Alternatives, Commons and Communities [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| - Olivier De Marcellus.
Commons,
Communities and Movements: Inside, Outside and Against
Capital [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| - Peter Waterman. All
in Common. A New/Old Slogan for
International Labour and Labour Internationalism [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| - Franco Barchiesi. Communities between Commons and
Commodities.
Subjectivity and Needs in the Definition of New Social
Movements [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
| - Mariarosa Dalla
Costa.. Seven
Good Reasons to Say "Locality"
[complete .pdf] -
[complete .doc] |
|
-
Mariarosa Dalla
Costa. The
Native In Us, The Earth We Belong To
[complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
|
- John Holloway. Is
the Zapatista Struggle and Anti-Capitalist Struggle? [complete .pdf] - [complete .doc] |
|
top
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|
The Commoner
N.5 - Autumn 2002 |
 |
crises
|
|
| Introduction |
| - Peter Bell & Harry Cleaver.
Marx's
Crisis Theory as a Theory of Class Struggle. [complete] - [preface
2002] |
- Ana C.
Dinerstein.
Beyond Insurrection. Argentina and
New
Internationalism
[complete] |
| - Conrad M. Herold. On
Financial Crisis As A Disciplinary Device Of Empire: Emergence and
Crisis Of The Crisis [complete] |
| - George Caffentzis. On
the Notion of a Crisis of Social Reproduction: A Theoretical
Review [complete] |
| - Werner Bonefeld. Class
and EMU [complete] |
| - Steve Wright. The
Historiography of the Mass Worker [complete] |
|
top
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|
The Commoner
N.4 - May
2002 |
 |
Enclosures,
power, commons
|
|
|
Introduction |
|
-
John Holloway. Beyond
Power.
Chapter 3from "Change the world without taking power" [complete] |
|
-
John Holloway. Twelve
theses [complete] |
|
-
Ruth Rikowski. The
Capitalisation of Libraries
[complete] |
|
-
Richard Barbrook. The
Regulation of Liberty: free speech, free trade and free gifts on the
Net
[complete] |
|
top
|
|
The Commoner n.3 - January
2002 |
|
Reclaming
the Body |
|
Introduction |
|
Silvia
Federici.
The Great
Caliban The Struggle Against the Rebel Body.
[complete] |
|
Cyril Smith. Marx,
Hegel, the Enlightenment
and Magic.
[complete] |
|
Nick
Dyer-Witheford. Global Body, Global
Brain/ Global Factory, Global War:
Revolt of the Value-Subjects. [complete] |
|
Les
Levidow. Marketizing
Higher Education: Neoliberal Strategies and Counter-Strategies.
[complete] |
|
top
|
|
The Commoner n.2 - September
2001 |
|
Enclosures: the mirror image of
alternatives |
|
Introduction |
|
Michael
Perelman.
The Secret History of
Primitive Accumulation and Classical Political Economy. [complete] |
|
Midnight Notes Collective. New
Enclosures
[complete] |
|
Silvia
Federici.
Debt crisis, Africa and
the new enclosures [complete] |
|
Massimo
De Angelis.
Marx and primitive
accumulation: The continuous character of capital's "enclosures"- [complete] |
|
Werner
Bonefeld. The Permanence of
Primitive Accumulation: Commodity Fetishism and Social
Constitution - [complete]]
|
|
top
|
|
The Commoner n.1 - May
2001 |
| |
|
Introduction |
| Electric new commons - Franco Barchiesi - Delivery From Below, Resistance From Above.
Electricity and the Politics of Struggle for People's Needs in
Tembisa [complete]
|
| Shall we kill the
banks? - George Caffentzis. Varieties of Bancocide: Left and Right
Critiques of the World Bank and IMF. [complete] |
| Flexibility for
whom? - Anne Costello & Les Levidow - Flexploitation Strategies: UK Lessons for Europe. [complete] |
| The rat race
disguised as freedom - Massimo De Angelis - Global Capital, Abstract Labour, and the
Fractal-Panopticon. [complete] |
| War is on the agenda - Silvia Federici - War, Globalization, and Reproduction.
|
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top
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From
the global labour movement - 24 hours breaking news |
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top |
| |
|
INTRODUCTIONS:
|
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The Commoner
N.10
|
|
The
Carnival of Values and the Exchange Value of Carnival
|
In this issue of
The Commoner
we are beginning to clear a path (or
maybe several paths) out of the dust emerging from the front line,
and try to make sense of what is the reason for the smoke and sparks.
We see a strange phenomenon occurring: what we practice is often not
what we value and what we value is often not what we practice (and
in saying this let us not forget that “practice” means many
diverse things: work, shopping, eating, filling forms, writing,
taking the train, watching the telly, harvesting a crop, reading,
struggling, changing nappies ... and each and one of these involve
direct or indirect relations to the “other”).
Yet, anthropologists tell us, value is what guides our practices and
the latter are in turn constituted by values. Could it be then that
struggles are clashes among values and correspondent practices (value
practices) and that what constitutes our daily existence is the
front line, the battlefield? If this is the case, to be a “journal
for other values” as
The Commoner
proclaims is to attempt to
recast politics in terms of values, that is a politics grounded in
the aspiration emerging from struggles everywhere to reclaim social
wealth as commons so as to live in dignity by practicing what we
value. A politics of value is also what is behind
David Graeber’s
contribution who starts us up into our journey with an extract from
his 2001 book (Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value) in which
he argues the anthropological case for understanding value as the
importance people attribute to action. He also writes an
introductory essay on “the political metaphysics of stupidity,”
in which he offers some reflections on how value theory (of the
anthropological type, not of the political economic type) can shed
light on such a phenomenon as Bush’s re-election.
The fact that struggles are clashes of value practices is not easily
recognised by Marxist economists, who as soon the word “value”
is pronounced, they talk to us about the correspondent “law” (of
value) often accompanied by pages and pages of econometric
regressions to “prove” its continuing relevance (as if the rat
race we are compelled to take part in needs to be proved). On the
other hand, many also think it is more appropriate to confine this
“law” of capitalism to the bin of history, as irrelevant to
explain contemporary capitalism and its post-modern multitudes. In
the following four quite diverse contributions we indulge a little
on this “law of value” and seek to reinterpret it so as to both
grounding it in (and making relevant to) our many struggles and
defend its relevance as a framework for the understanding of
contemporary capitalism.
De Angelis
here follows those who depart from this tradition that
sees only capital and portrays us purely as victims. He sees the law
of value in terms of ongoing struggles among value practices,
struggles that are not only “out there”, but also traversing the
subjects. He distances himself from both those writers who fetishise
the labour theory of value by separating it from struggles, and
those who dismiss the contemporary relevance of its measure imposed
over the social body. For capital value cannot be beyond measure, he
argues, because commodities' value are constituted through a
continuous process of measurement of people's activity that keep us
on our toes, whether we are “material” or “immaterial”
workers, waged or unwaged. It is in this way that we reproduce
scarcity while we could celebrate abundance. Similarly, in an older
contribution published in 1989,
Harry Cleaver
confronts the argument
of Clauss Offe and Toni Negri according to which Marx's theory of
value is made obsolete by the historical evolution of capitalist
accumulation. For Cleaver, while Offe is shortsighted in believing
that in current capitalism work has been displaced from its central
role of organising society, Negri's position on the obsolescence of
the labour theory of value is predicated on the artificial
separation between a concept of labour as producer of wealth and as
means of domination, associating only the former with value. Also
George Caffentzis
intervenes on the question of the measure of value
in contemporary capitalism with an essay on the legacy of Marx. He
shows how modern capitalism still rely on “quantity” and
“measure” and categories such as formal and real subsumption of
labour have quantitative aspects in Marx's work that would make it
impossible to use the notion while neglecting these aspects.
David
Harvie
instead tackles another related
subject, that of what labour
is productive of value for capital. He argues that all labour, waged
or unwaged, “material” or “immaterial”, is both productive
and unproductive, because all labour become the realm of capitalist
drive and hence is a terrain of struggle.
Conflicting value practices around land are underpinning the
following article by
Mariarosa Dalla
Costa, originally appeared in
1994, which discusses the expropriation of land and the putting a
price on it as still two fundamental strategies to make a profit out
of the Third Word today as they were in the origin of capitalism in
Europe. These enclosures which are predicated on valuing land in
monetary terms, are challenged by struggle of reappropriation which
are “pregnant with a multitude of meanings.” Land in fact does
not only refer to means of subsistence, although this is
“excellent reason” for a movement of re-appropriation. It means
and is also valued for a plurality of other reasons. Reflecting on
eco-feminist practices “linking nature, women, production and
consumption in a single approach” she criticises male scholars who
dismiss these as “romantic”. “One might wonder ... what value
to these scholars attribute to the right to survival of those
communties ... whose subsistence and life system are guaranteed by
these practices with nature, while the ‘development proposal’
almost always presupposes the sacrifice of the vast majority of the
individuals that constitute these communities.” We have also
another, more recent article, that
Dalla Costa
wrote together with
Dario De Bortoli
surveying and reflecting on a variety of struggles
on land, food and agriculture, this time in a country of the North,
Italy. This recent movement is distinct from classical unionism,
which fixed working conditions but remained indifferent to what was
produced and how, and is centred on a plurality of value
problematics, such as “the question of the ends and the sense of
peasant labour, a fundamental rethinking of the farmer's activity
... plus of course the ... defence of plant and animal biodiversity
and therefore of the raw material of a diversified agriculture. This
is a movement that reflects the “collective will of farmers,
stockbreeders and citizens (not only as consumers), who have
organized to refuse an agriculture and a stockbreeding system that
increasingly spreads illness and danger of death.”
Silvia Federici
continues this line of argument as she surveys a
myriad of contemporary land struggles made by women from the South
not only to reappropriate land, but also to boost subsistence
farming. It is thanks to these efforts that, she argues billions of
people are able to survive. Not only, but in these struggles women
show they “valorize” the labour of their children and family
members as opposed to the de-valorisation they are subject to within
the sexual and international division of labour which make capital
accumulation thriving. Ultimately, these struggles point in the
direction of the changes needed to regain control of the means of
production and a new society, “where reproducing ourselves does
not come at the expense of other people, nor is a threat to the
continuation of life on the planet.”
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